Last night I had the opportunity to do some photography of the Austin skyline after dark for a long time client. I decided to get to the location early to grab some personal pre-sunset images as well, and shot this while I was waiting. I’m not sure, but the client may decide they like this better than their original vision. We shall see…
One thing that is obvious (if you look close) is the cranes have returned to Austin. Not the pretty flying kind but the big ugly steel ones. You can see where work has begun on at least one large project. It seemed like it took years of waiting to get a shot of the Austin skyline without numerous cranes in the shot. Finally, last year the skyline was (relatively) crane free. It looks like those days are over as the ‘progress’ continues.
I recently did some additional photography for the Paramount Theatre in Austin Texas. I love this place! This is actually an HDR panorama to try and capture as much of the theatre a possible from the front center stage position. It was shot as multiple images with my 14mm lens and then stitched together. Normally, I would have been able to get the whole room with the 14-24 lens by just backing up a bit. However, the theatre had a large projection screen in place for a summer film series which forced me to the front of the stage. Creating the image this way caused a bit more of a ‘fisheye’ effect which I believe works well for this grand historical theatre.
You can see my other photographs of the Austin Paramount Theater here.
The Paramount Theatre in Austin Texas is one of the very few remaining ‘hemp houses’ left in America that still use hemp ropes and sandbags for the theatrical rigging. It’s hard to believe how much of this stuff it takes to make the curtains, lights, scenery etc. apparently effortlessly fly in and out as needed during a performance. In reality, there is a crew working up here pulling on a lot of rope to make it happen.
You can see my other photos of the Paramount Theatre here:
I’ve photographed the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue in Austin Texas several times & every time I’m there, someone has left a gift for Stevie on the base. Last time it was a red rose, this time it was a guitar pick lying at his feet. Perhaps these are simply a reflection on the live music scene that Austin Texas is so well known for, and therefore should not surprise me, nevertheless I find these little tokens quite touching. You can see my other Stevie photographs here:
Last week we took a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate our daughters 21st birthday. We all had a great time. We saw a couple of shows (“Love” and “The Mac King Show”) “Love” was very good, although acrobatically not on a par with the other Cirque shows we have seen. So far “O” is my favorite. “The Mac King Show” was a last minute addition to our trip and a very pleasant surprise. He was quite entertaining & easily worth the inexpensive (for Las Vegas) $35.00 cover.
The above shot was taken from our daughters suite at the Bellagio. A couple of months ago I booked a couple of rooms at a cheapo rate through Hotels.com. I was rather surprised when we checked in and the front desk clerk notified me we actually had a suite and a standard room. Since it was Audrea’s birthday, we gave her the suite. A few hours later we were notified that there was an error & the suite was actually reserved for another John Rogers, however we were welcome to stay in the suite for the previously paid rate. Sweeet! (Or should I say Suite!?) Later that evening the four of us watched the amazing choreographed fountains perform their magic to the music of “Chorus Line”
Ok, I know its not Valentine’s Day, but looking at Jena in her red dress just sorta makes you feel like it should be. This is another portrait from her last session here. I love it when I have the opportunity to get some totally different looks in a two hour session. This one more fun & the last one I posted was a much more classic look. (You can see the previous post here.)
This pose would also make a great Christmas card!
This cute guy’s (or girl, it’s difficult to tell from this angle…) ancestors were no doubt partially to credit for us having National Parks. Theodore Roosevelt visited this area to hunt buffalo (bison actually,) when he was young and fell in love with nature. Later during his presidency he created the first National Parks to help protect and prevent development of our unspoiled lands. It was quite a new and controversial concept.
We recently attended a wedding in North Dakota. As first time visitors we really had no idea what to expect. We were quite pleasantly surprised by beauty of the badlands. We stayed in Medora which happens to be the location of the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This guy (and many of his cousins) greeted us as we made a morning drive through the park.
Amos lives in Fairbanks Alaska. This particular day it was in the mid 70′s, quite beautiful outside and Amos REALLY wanted to go out and play. He spent the majority of his photo session looking out the French doors and doing his best to express his desire to be let out. I pretended to be a stupid human not understanding a single meow while clicking away at my shutter.
I had the opportunity to photograph these adorable cousins a couple of days ago. He is eight months old & she is six months. I’m not sure exactly what he is telling her but she was smiling!
It’s amazing how fast a 6 month old can move. With infants this age it’s great to have pro studio lights (in this case I setup in their home) that allow me to shoot really fast because every second these two had a different adorable expression.
As a side note; I’m actually doing this post from 38,000 feet flying to Seattle on our way to Fairbanks. Pretty cool technology!
Katz’s New York style deli has been a fixture in Austin for over 30 years. For many in Austin Katz’s was the ‘go to’ place after closing down the bars on Austin’s 6th Street or Warehouse district. With it’s parent company recently filing for bankruptcy protection & rumors that they may be looking to move from their iconic 6th street Austin location, I thought I’d better grab a photo of this long time Austin landmark before it disappears like so many others.
